1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication systems and more particularly to the transmission of information over wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless communication, and particularly cellular/PCS wireless communication systems, are becoming more and more popular in the U.S. More particularly, the use of wireless systems, and particularly cellular phones, is becoming more and more popular in automobiles. Many automobiles currently on the highway are equipped with cellular phones.
Although many cars on the highway are equipped with cellular phones, and these phones have many features, the phones are mainly utilized for communicating with other phones via wireless and land line phone networks. These phones are not used to receive other kinds of information, such as traffic information for example.
While on the highway, most people receive highway traffic information from AM/FM radio stations, periodically. This information is often general information corresponding to large regions and often comes to a user long after traffic has accumulated. Accordingly, a need exists for quickly and efficiently providing highway traffic information to a user, and for more particularly targeting the highway traffic information to that which is applicable to the user.
The present invention is directed to a traffic reporting system and method which utilizes wireless technology to efficiently provide traffic information specifically targeted to the user of a cellular phone. Traffic information is received for a designated region from a plurality of sensors, traffic flow information within the designated region is calculated, and the calculated traffic flow information is output to a wireless unit upon the wireless unit entering the designated region. As such, the traffic information can be effectively transmitted to the user through the wireless unit, and can be particularly targeted to the user when entering a particular designated region, such as a cell for example.